Anyone a Mod/Admin on Diamondaviators.net?

[spdracer888]

Anyone is (or know of) a/an mod/admin on Diamond Aviators.net? I signed up (same screen name) for over a week now, and no one seems to be around to approve my account. I already emailed the standard admin email but have not heard back.

I have a few Diamond related questions and until my account is approved I can't posted it up there.

Thanks in advance.

John

 

[John Baker]

Probably the frivolities of the season that is distracting them.

-John

 

[weilke]

The site is owned by a guy who does a lot of travel (including flying a DA40 to Thailand), if you don't get an answer, he is probably tied up otherwise.

 

[Kai B]

Anyone is (or know of) a/an mod/admin on Diamond Aviators.net? I signed up (same screen name) for over a week now, and no one seems to be around to approve my account. I already emailed the standard admin email but have not heard back.

I have a few Diamond related questions and until my account is approved I can't posted it up there.

Thanks in advance.

John

Hello John,

Thanks for your interest in joining DAN. Generally saying, we approve all accounts of owners of a Diamond and of Diamond Aircraft Industries staff only. We do make exceptions for people who fly or work with our planes for professional reasons. If you have sent an E-Mail to my standard email account, I reply within 24 hours latest.

If your last name ends with "ing", you account has been activated already.

Happy Holidays,

/Kai

 

[spdracer888]

Thank you for your reply and no my last name doesn't end with "ing". I'm not an owner, but am actively looking for a DA40 and just thought your forum was open to the public and would be a good resource. That's okay I'll find other resources.

Hello John,

Thanks for your interest in joining DAN. Generally saying, we approve all accounts of owners of a Diamond and of Diamond Aircraft Industries staff only. We do make exceptions for people who fly or work with our planes for professional reasons. If you have sent an E-Mail to my standard email account, I reply within 24 hours latest.

If your last name ends with "ing", you account has been activated already.

Happy Holidays,

/Kai

 

[atbroome]

Just an FYI, Kai's current response (for non-owners) is:

Hello,

You have tried to register with the DiamondAviators.Net. Thank you very
much for your interest. We recently only activate the accounts of
Diamond aircraft owners. With the information you provided, we can´t see
that you are the owner of a Diamond.

Sorry that I don't have any better news for you.

It's his board so its his rules, but kinda odd he limits to owners only. There are some of us that learned to fly in a Diamond and would like to own a Diamond one of these days. Even the Beech folks aren't that draconian. For BeechTalk the only requirement is to use your own name.

I decided to request a login to respond to a post from a user asking about renting a DA-40 in the NY/NJ area and wanted to post these 2 options that I have no offiliation with:

http://www.discovertheskies.com/id27.html
http://freeflight-aviation.com

 

[rbridges]

Just an FYI, Kai's current response (for non-owners) is:



It's his board so its his rules, but kinda odd he limits to owners only. There are some of us that learned to fly in a Diamond and would like to own a Diamond one of these days. Even the Beech folks aren't that draconian. For BeechTalk the only requirement is to use your own name.

I decided to request a login to respond to a post from a user asking about renting a DA-40 in the NY/NJ area and wanted to post these 2 options that I have no offiliation with:

http://www.discovertheskies.com/id27.html
http://freeflight-aviation.com

I guess he wants to weed out the "unserious" people, but that is a little extreme. Like you said, his board his rules.

 

[spdracer888]

Marketing 101: you never turn down anyone that comes and knock on your door. But hey, whatever works for Kai.

I was able to get all my questions answered through a few members on here. Perhaps we should start a DA20/40/42 related sub section? For those of us that doesn't own a Diamond (yet) and can have a resource to turn to?

Btw, Diamond Corporate is completely helpless, I don't think I ever go through to them once. If this is the type of customer service I'm experiencing as potential buyer, what will happen once I need parts for my aircraft? I'm start to lose interest in Diamond real fast.

 

[Sac Arrow]

Marketing 101: you never turn down anyone that comes and knock on your door. But hey, whatever works for Kai.

Btw, I was able to get all my questions answered through a few members on here. Perhaps we should start a DA20/40/42 related sub section? For those of us that doesn't own a Diamond (yet) and can have a resource to turn to?

Obviously he isn't marketing for Diamond (I hope.) I tried to get an account with that board a couple years ago as well, and was denied. I was a hopeful DA40 owner at one point and I wanted to research them as much as possible.

I mean, of course my decision to purchase a DA40 or not isn't going to hinge on the ability to join a message board, but still...

But yeah, I think there are plenty of good resources on Diamonds right here on this board. Good enough for your purpose.

 

[spdracer888]

Obviously he isn't marketing for Diamond (I hope.) I tried to get an account with that board a couple years ago as well, and was denied. I was a hopeful DA40 owner at one point and I wanted to research them as much as possible.

I mean, of course my decision to purchase a DA40 or not isn't going to hinge on the ability to join a message board, but still...

But yeah, I think there are plenty of good resources on Diamonds right here on this board. Good enough for your purpose.

+1. So instead of building a fan base, he risks alienating enthusiasts and turn away potential buyers. I may not be the brightest bulb in the room (and if you ask my wife she will confirm that), but how's that going to help Diamond's brand loyalty/image/demand? and if you don't have demand, what does that do to the resell value?

 

[weilke]

+1. So instead of building a fan base, he risks alienating enthusiasts and turn away potential buyers. I may not be the brightest bulb in the room (and if you ask my wife she will confirm that), but how's that going to help Diamond's brand loyalty/image/demand? and if you don't have demand, what does that do to the resell value?

There have been about 3 diamond boards over the past 15 years. I was a member on the one that was active maybe 8 years ago, and they had no restriction against non-owners. For a while the place was pretty active, at some point people started to ask questions as to who 'owns' the board. Turns out, all the IP, domain etc. were owned by an individual who was interested in selling the whole thing. Somehow this got some peoples panties in a wad, folks started calling each other names and Kai rather than dealing with the personalities on board #2 just drew up his own site. Given how small the fleet is, I doubt that he is raking in the millions from the site. If he wants to minimize the headache of the site by limiting it to owners only, his call. He is not doing this to market for Diamond, he does this to have a forum of knowledgeable owners with whom he can exchange information about their planes.

The Malibu, TBM, Aerostar and Citation sites are all paysites.

 

[thegoat]

I am a DA40 owner and have a pending registration. I am not sure how to get this approved or how to contact Kai. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[N5922S]

Marketing 101: you never turn down anyone that comes and knock on your door. But hey, whatever works for Kai.

I was able to get all my questions answered through a few members on here. Perhaps we should start a DA20/40/42 related sub section? For those of us that doesn't own a Diamond (yet) and can have a resource to turn to?

Btw, Diamond Corporate is completely helpless, I don't think I ever go through to them once. If this is the type of customer service I'm experiencing as potential buyer, what will happen once I need parts for my aircraft? I'm start to lose interest in Diamond real fast.

I've owned a DA20 for 10 years. Always glad to help if I can; if not, I have some good contacts I'll share.

Jim Spencer

 

[spdracer888]

I've owned a DA20 for 10 years. Always glad to help if I can; if not, I have some good contacts I'll share.

Jim Spencer

Thanks Jim. I'll shoot you a PM offline may be we can have a quick chat.

 

[midlifeflyer]

There have been about 3 diamond boards over the past 15 years.

I saw some of the same. One of my SOPs as I started to fly more aircraft was to join a type group.

When I started flying a DA-40, I looked around. At the time there was a pay-for type club. Pay isn't an issue but the problem for me was that there was no ability to browse without being a member and there was no trial membership (like most of the others)." IOW, no way to see, without paying, whether or not it was worth paying for. And when I asked whether there was a possibility of a trial membership anyway, the answer was "No. Don't worry; it's worth it."

I never found out whether it was or not.

 

[MachFly]

I am a DA40 owner and have a pending registration. I am not sure how to get this approved or how to contact Kai. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks!

I thought that forum was dead for years?

 

[weilke]

When I started flying a DA-40, I looked around. At the time there was a pay-for type club. Pay isn't an issue but the problem for me was that there was no ability to browse without being a member and there was no trial membership (like most of the others)." IOW, no way to see, without paying, whether or not it was worth paying for. And when I asked whether there was a possibility of a trial membership anyway, the answer was "No. Don't worry; it's worth it."

Yeah, I dont remember the details, but at some point there were two boards operating in parallel. One was a pay-site, the other a free one. I was a member of the free one which then merged with the pay site and while people were carping about the fee they had to pay, I never got a bill...

Apparently some airline pilot had purchased the pay-site and tried to make a couple of $$ off it. At some point, he invited people to be on some kind of 'board' for the site which was tasked with setting policy, including whether one is allowed to criticize the Diamond aircraft company . After a while, a couple of the board members resigned because they found out that he simply continued to do what he wanted to do and wasn't willing to share any information about the financials of the site. Then there were a couple of europeans who felt that the board was too US centric. Somewhere in that kerfuffle, Kai just set up another free site.

 

[Kai B]

+1. So instead of building a fan base, he risks alienating enthusiasts and turn away potential buyers. I may not be the brightest bulb in the room (and if you ask my wife she will confirm that), but how's that going to help Diamond's brand loyalty/image/demand? and if you don't have demand, what does that do to the resell value?

@spdracer888: Diamondaviators.net (DAN) is a place where Diamond owners help each other. Its goal is not to promote Diamond Aircraft, to build up a fan base or improve loyalty to the brand as you might think. Nor do we mind if we do. We are enthusiastic about our planes and want to make flying them more fun and secure. Personally, I think we should not focus too much of the economic consequences of flying and by no means I ever thought of resale value, which is excellent by the way.

There is some criticism that I keep the forum open to owners and DAI staff only. It used to be different and all pilots were given a login. The relation of pilots (and even non-pilots) who signed up because they wanted to buy a Diamond to the ones who actually did is 6:1. The quality of posts drastically decreased and most of those initial questions have been dealt with before. Everybody can search the forum and find replies.

In order to make it easier to post a question which has not been asked before, I added a guest forum where everybody can post any question without a login. https://www.diamondaviators.net/forum/public-forum-f17.html

To another point, I do have safety and privacy concerns which can best be dealt with by identifying the new account holder as an owner.

Please, understand that DAN is my hobby only but I spend more time on the forum, fixing, maintaining and moderating it than flying or maintaining my plane. I needed to cut somewhere. My apologies for this limitation of service.

If anybody feels left out or wants to send me a private message, feel free to direct via email it to admin at the domain above.

 

[Kai B]

I thought that forum was dead for years?

Diamondaviators.net is alive and kicking with over 1000 clicks from individual IPs daily, over 7000 flight reports uploaded and an average of 15 posts a day. All of it steadily increasing since the page went online in July 2010.

There is some confusion with the previous forum which was a site where they had to pay a membership fee before ever knowing what you could expect there. Maybe you referred to that one.

Yeah, I dont remember the details, but at some point there were two boards operating in parallel. One was a pay-site, the other a free one. I was a member of the free one which then merged with the pay site and while people were carping about the fee they had to pay, I never got a bill...

Florian, everything is correct. Only that diamondaviators.net never merged with another site and DAN is absolutely free of charge and has always been. I pulled up this site because I was as angry as you about paying 50$ on the other site and never getting anything in return except for a poorly maintained and nearly abandonded forum.

 

[weilke]

Florian, everything is correct. Only that diamondaviators.net never merged with another site and DAN is absolutely free of charge and has always been. I pulled up this site because I was as angry as you about paying 50$ on the other site and never getting anything in return except for a poorly maintained and nearly abandonded forum.

The merger I described precedes DAN by maybe 5 years. It was a fairly active site until people started to get into each others hair over I dont remember what.

 

[Kai B]

The merger I described precedes DAN by maybe 5 years. It was a fairly active site until people started to get into each others hair over I dont remember what.

Ahh. Thanks for clarifying. Once someone charges some kind of fees, it is normal that the question "what for?" comes up. That s why DAN is free.

 

[weilke]

Ahh. Thanks for clarifying. Once someone charges some kind of fees, it is normal that the question "what for?" comes up. That s why DAN is free.

Nothing wrong with a pay-site if the information is useful. Keeps the riff-raff away and eliminates the need to use annoying google ads and other funding mechanisms. The problem is that some people think because they pay that they have a say in how the place is run.

 

[spdracer888]

The relation of pilots (and even non-pilots) who signed up because they wanted to buy a Diamond to the ones who actually did is 6:1. The quality of posts drastically decreased and most of those initial questions have been dealt with before. Everybody can search the forum and find replies.

To another point, I do have safety and privacy concerns which can best be dealt with by identifying the new account holder as an owner.

Please, understand that DAN is my hobby only but I spend more time on the forum, fixing, maintaining and moderating it than flying or maintaining my plane. I needed to cut somewhere. My apologies for this limitation of service.

If anybody feels left out or wants to send me a private message, feel free to direct via email it to admin at the domain above.

Hi Kai, enjoy your private forum. All the best!

 

[Ted]

It sounds to me like Kai has a good idea. If I owned a Diamond, I'd enjoy a private forum to discuss the planes. Keeps out the low-quality posts, as he mentioned. The Twin Cessna forum is for members only (with a membership fee), and the quality of the posts there is top-notch.

More power to him.

 

[jonnyjetprop]

I think Beechtalk.com has it figured out the best. Using your actual name cuts down on a lot of the BS you see on Internet forums. It is still free to join.

 

[schmookeeg]

Hi Kai, enjoy your private forum. All the best!

 

[atbroome]

And open to non/prospective owners.

edit: I'll give Kai's policy one positive: it likely spared the Diamond owners a long thread from a certain prospective owner that showed up here and a number of the open to the public type specific forums.

I think Beechtalk.com has it figured out the best. Using your actual name cuts down on a lot of the BS you see on Internet forums. It is still free to join.

 

[weilke]

And open to non/prospective owners.

edit: I'll give Kai's policy one positive: it likely spared the Diamond owners a long thread from a certain prospective owner that showed up here and a number of the open to the public type specific forums.

Probably the only owner forum that didnt experience that particular internet phenomenon.

 

[spdracer888]

Almost 9 years since my initial post, just realized that DiamondAviators.net is now open to the public (with a private section).

Oh forgot to mention I just picked up a brand new Cirrus SR22GTS thank to COPA who didn't require me to be an owner to signup…guess being welcoming can lead to future sales.

 

[weilke]

Almost 9 years since my initial post, just realized that DiamondAviators.net is now open to the public (with a private section). Oh and I just picked up a new Cirrus SR22GTS thank to COPA who didn't require me to be an owner to signup.

All they need is your credit card. Kind of like the company itself ;-)